Posted 05 March 2012 - 09:39 AM

Wow, am I the only person to think that outside of Dave Martinez and the guy from Montreal everyone is out of their fucking minds?! Everyone says their team will win the East and make it to the conference final. My overall impressions of the off season team by team:D.C.: definitely improved, will probably make the playoffs (5,6,7)Houston: Haven't done a thing outside of adding Mac (3,4,5)Chicago: Added some depth. They will make the playoffs (2,3,4)Columbus: Added depth. Boring team (5,6,7)Toronto: First stable year. Might actually make the playoffs for the first time (5,6,7)Philly: Big losses in Letoux and Man-Dragon. How their new cokehead striker fares is critical (6,7,8)K.C.: Only added Convey (1,2,3). Probably the best team in the East. Red Bulls: Core is unchanged. Added depth. How the new GK fares is the difference if we finish 1, 2 or 4, 5New England: Rowe is an early favorite to win ROY. (6,7,8)Montreal: Dead last (9,10)

Posted 05 March 2012 - 07:11 PM

Posted 05 March 2012 - 07:59 PM

Hutskizzle

Player/Manager

Members

3,756 posts

Watching Chicago's comeback video against the Scum made me all warm and fuzzy inside, "DC United not afraid to go down in the box, collectively as a team" . reading philly's jack-off take a shot at us again just reaffirms everyone's belief they try so hard to get noticed

Posted 06 March 2012 - 10:46 AM

onionsack

Dir. of Football Operations

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10,718 posts

Location:New York CIty

Supports:New York Cosmos

If I had to write it:

New York Red BullsOnionsack, prophet of Awesome:What was the highlight of 2011?Without question the 4-0 demolition of DC United at RFK stadium. It was the largest road victory over our most hated rival of all time. It was also notable for being the point in the season where we as fans were feeling the best about the team's chances to win silverware in 2012.What was the low point?Despite never winning any domestic or international trophy in the club's 16 year histroy. Coach Hans Backe effectively forfieted the U.S. Open Cup comeptition when he elected to not even travel with the team to Chicago for a quarterfinal matchup which would see the winner play a USL side in the semifinals. Only reserve players made the trip and the team was coached by Mike Petke. The team lost embarassingly and ended 2012 trophyless again.What do you think of the off-season trades/drafts?The biggest positive in the off season was the lack of massive movement on the player and personnel front.s As a club that has become notorious in its history for massive turnover season to season, the lack of any real substantial activity wasd a welcome change. The team added a few players in the hopes of being deeper and also signed a couple players to fill needs such as Holgerson and Conde to assist in the vacaency left by Tim Ream.

What do you expect this season?As with last season, the team should by all accounts be a title contender on at least one front. They, along with LA, have the most expensive roster in MLS and are now entering their third year under the same regiem. The only question is can Hans Backe manage and motivate this side and tactically outmanuevre his peers in MLS to get this team to put in consistant performances. Judigng from 2011 the answer is probably not and fans should expect to see this team hanging around midtable most the season.

Where will the team finish?This team will likely finish 3rd in the East but flirt at times in the year with the top of the standings and also with the playoff cutoff line.

Who will win the Eastern Conference?Usually in MLS a team comes out of nowhere. In 2009 it was RSL, in 2010 it was Dallas and Colorado, last year it was Kansas City. This year i sense another under the radar side coming up and grabing top spot in the east. That team is going to be Chicago Fire.

Who will win the MLS Cup?It's Los Angeles's Cup to lose. I suspect Seattle will put up a very strong challenge though.

Posted 06 March 2012 - 12:02 PM

Minus you're self coronation your version is very well written and level headed.

'Sack, do you have to buy an extra seat for your ego when you come to the stadium? Is it hard to get it through the turnstiles?

Strangely I agree with most of this, though I'd probably pick SKC to take the East. Also, while the East is weak relative to the West, given the unbalanced schedule I see more parity in the East than last year. The only team that seems to have regressed in a meaningful way, at least on paper, is Philly.

Posted 06 March 2012 - 12:47 PM

Sack's biggest "miss" was on Tim Ream. He ate crow for it... let it go.

I agree with most of Sack's analysis. Chicago was playing some of the best in MLS at the close of 2011, so they could start 2012 strong.

Darkhorses... I think you have to look to Canada. I think this is the year Toronto makes the playoffs. They are much stronger than in years passed and much more balanced which has been their biggest problem. Vancouver has an impressive attack with one one of the best playmakers in the league (Chumiento) to help facilitate it.

As others have mentioned, Philly has taken a hit. New England should be near the bottom again. DC United should do about as well as last year, challenge for the playoffs, maybe sneak in, maybe miss out. DC is poor on paper, but DeRosario carries poor teams. Columbus lost Mendoza, Ekpo, and Rogers. That's a lot to lose in attack.

"If they asked me to go back to the academy and coach the U-14s (I would have). I care about this club. It was never false, it always rings true.’" - Red Bull New York Head Coach Michael Petke

Posted 06 March 2012 - 12:53 PM

Why strange? I consistantly for years have put forth some of the most well balanced and thoughtful commentary on this site. Outside a handful of moments I generally am pretty spot on here.

Maybe I should run an open submission thread for the next fan feed back story, if Dan's OK with that. We'll be running fan review/previews throughout the season, starting next week...

In the meantime, onionsack, it'd be very helpful of you, or anyone else who has their own take on this, to paste your predictions on the comments thread of the Guardian story. Registration is free.

I promise when the season gets underway, I'll stop adding this begging tone to my posts and we'll stand or fall on our coverage. For now, any sign people are responding to it really helps with our London overlords.

Final shout out to Dave Martinez for helping out on this - he, Metrofanatic Dan and Brent from ESC were very generous with their time for this and previous stories. I'll be trying to spread the people I contact for the team this year (so I'm not drawing too much on any one person's goodwill), but it's been great getting some familiar voices up there to start with.

Posted 06 March 2012 - 01:01 PM

Sack's biggest "miss" was on Tim Ream. He ate crow for it... let it go.

I agree with most of Sack's analysis. Chicago was playing some of the best in MLS at the close of 2011, so they could start 2012 strong.

Darkhorses... I think you have to look to Canada. I think this is the year Toronto makes the playoffs. They are much stronger than in years passed and much more balanced which has been their biggest problem. Vancouver has an impressive attack with one one of the best playmakers in the league (Chumiento) to help facilitate it.

As others have mentioned, Philly has taken a hit. New England should be near the bottom again. DC United should do about as well as last year, challenge for the playoffs, maybe sneak in, maybe miss out. DC is poor on paper, but DeRosario carries poor teams. Columbus lost Mendoza, Ekpo, and Rogers. That's a lot to lose in attack.

Let it go? That's like an animal right's activist telling a man with a pitbull attached with a vise grip on his leg to "Let it go".

Have we been abusing the poor little pussy cat?

BTW, according to his wiki bio he's never made a mistake, you must be thinking of someone else.

Posted 06 March 2012 - 01:31 PM

Sack's biggest "miss" was on Tim Ream. He ate crow for it... let it go.

Yeah Ream really was a big miss by me. But i will also point out I was ultimately more right about that 2010 draft than i got credit for.

Darkhorses... I think you have to look to Canada. I think this is the year Toronto makes the playoffs. They are much stronger than in years passed and much more balanced which has been their biggest problem. Vancouver has an impressive attack with one one of the best playmakers in the league (Chumiento) to help facilitate it.

Toronto just is one of those teams that can not get in righ ton the field. They could use some stability and some long term thinking. Montreal will be a typical expansion side. I actually think Vancouver could be a real darkhorse in 2012 in the West provided their defense holds up.

As others have mentioned, Philly has taken a hit. New England should be near the bottom again. DC United should do about as well as last year, challenge for the playoffs, maybe sneak in, maybe miss out. DC is poor on paper, but DeRosario carries poor teams. Columbus lost Mendoza, Ekpo, and Rogers. That's a lot to lose in attack.

I actually expect DC to be decent and make the playoffs for the first time in like 5 years this year. Philly will be fine, Nowak ball in MLS is a proven commodity and I sense they will challenge for a place between 3-6 in the East. NE and Columbus will struggle i think but not as bad as some think. Houston will be soild and KC should be near the top of the east as well.